3 cooperative bank staff held in Kodaikanal for embezzlement

They had swindled ₹17 lakh from account holders

Three persons have been arrested on charges of embezzlement, cheating and others by the Commercial Crime Investigation Wing police here on Saturday.

Following a complaint from Deputy Registrar (Cooperatives) Illamathi, the police registered a case under various IPC Sections, including cheating and breach of trust.

The complaint was that a group of four to five staff, working as cashier and computer operator, at the Kodaikanal urban cooperative bank had indulged in fraudulent activities by siphoning off money from accounts that were inactive.

In 2013, cashier Richard, 51, and two other staff, whose names were given as Saravanakumar, 41, and Sujendran, had allegedly siphoned off ₹17 lakh from the accounts of 18 customers of the bank.

The issue came to light after about two years, when an account holder suspected fraud and the three employees were placed under suspension in 2015.

After a discreet probe, it came to light that two other staff had also figured in the crime.

A police officer said that the employees had allegedly transferred funds from a few account holders, whose operations were high, to dormant account holders in the branch. The employees, in a bid to ensure that the fraud didn’t come to light, had given an impression that the transactions were genuine. For this purpose, they had copied some signatures in challans and effected transfers.

After carrying out the “operation” in these dormant accounts for a few months, they had “withdrawn” the same and shared it among themselves, the officer explained.

When the modus operandi came to light, the bank had initiated action, the police said. Two other employees, who were part of the conspiracy, were at large and a hunt was on to nab them, he added.